1629 - 1634
In July 1630, most immigrants quit Salem for
Charlestown. Nat and twenty men cross to Shawmut peninsula to begin a
settlement sponsored by Isaac Johnson. Thomas starts work as one of Governor
Winthrop’s clerks. The move to Charlestown is not propitious, for as the summer
heat intensifies, fever and scurvy strike the malnourished settlers.
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| 1629 site of "Great House" of John Winthrop in City Square, Boston uncovered during the Big Dig |
On August 31, 1630, her husband at her side,
Arbella Johnson breathes her last. Seven days later, Isaac cannot hold back his
tears at a meeting of the General Court, where it is ordered that Trimontaine
be called “Boston.”
At the same court, an “old planter” is hauled
before Governor Winthrop and his assistants. Thomas Morton is found guilty on
trumped up charges brought against him by archenemies like John Endicott of
Salem. He is sentenced to be put in the bilboes, to have his goods confiscated
and his house burned to the ground.
Morton sees the smoke rise above Mar-re-Mount
from a ship in the bay, where he is incarcerated until his transportation to
England. – While Morton waits for the Handmaid to carry him into exile,
he begins to pen New English Canaan, which contains a blistering attack
on Master Temperwell (Winthrop) and the “sect of cruell Schismaticks.”
Image courtesy: Meet Thomas Morton
At two in the morning on September 30, Isaac
Johnson dies, as much from a broken heart as illness. His last request is to be
buried on his property, which is done in a ceremony performed by his old
friend, William Blaxton. – Isaac still lies in a corner of his lot, where the
first burying ground in Boston was laid out adjoining today’s King’s Chapel.
Encouraged by Blaxton, Winthrop moves from
Charlestown in October 1630; by the middle of the month, one hundred and fifty
people are living at Boston.
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| John Winthrop, signature - Wikipedia |
The onset of winter finds settlers crowded into
tents and rude shacks, in caves and cellars carved out of snake-infested
hillsides. One colonist crawls into an empty barrel, his only protection from
the bone-chilling weather.
The mortality that began at Charlestown doesn’t
end. Before the wretched winter of 1630/1 is over, two hundred souls perish.
Those who survive the northwest gales face starvation as food supplies fail,
desperate settlers crawling over frozen mudflats to scrabble for mussels and
clams. Some throw themselves on the mercy of the natives, begging food from
Chitanawoo and the Massachusett. Strong-and-Bold has borne her share of
suffering, and does all she can to help the English.
In a January blizzard, the Steeles watch in horror
as their clay-daubed chimney bursts into flames and their house is destroyed.
Adam Trane helps them build an “English” wigwam. He takes Nat to the
Massachusett hunting grounds, providing the family with a supply of meat. –
It’s not enough to save Jeremiah Steele who dies in late January, one of many
to lie beside Isaac Johnson in the First Burying Ground.
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| Kings Chapel Burying Ground, Boston - Patricia Drury via Wikipedia |
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